Wearing down back shoes - WHY?

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moneypit1

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Why would a horse wear its back shoes more than the fronts? They are worn evenly. A friend has two horses that do this and I wondered what the reason for it is? The farrier when asked said "how should I know"! One of the horses is a just backed youngster. Thankies for any ideas
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Dragging their back legs as not using their backend properly

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Fly does this but his hind shoes are worn at the front due to dragging his toes and not tracking up.
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It could be that rather than dragging his hindlegs, he is stiff though one of the joints in the hingdlegs, causing lack of flexion.
This can make them skate their hinds along the ground rather than placing them with each step.
This causes more wear than usual.
My mare skates a bit, and she's fine.
I've had a few other horses that have gone this way too and other than wearing out the shoes pretty quickly, it's not a problem.
It's probably just the way your youngster goes, rather than an indication of a real problem, but worth keeping an eye on anyway.
It may improve as he muscles up and builds fitness.
 
Agree DD-My OH's old ISH used to get through a pair of back shoes every fortnight
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yet the fronts would go 6 weeks. As he walked he would "scrub" or twist his back feet. I wanted to get more topline on him because he looked weak behind so i started lunging in a pessoa for 15 mins, 5 times a week and within 2 months he had lovely topline and his back shoes were upto 5 weeks between shoeing
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